Prince George made his first mark on the fashion world when he was merely a day old. 7 million people tuned in to watch his parents ferry the third in line to the British throne—wrapped in a snowy, avian-print swaddling blanket—home from St. Mary’s Hospital in London on 23 July 2013. The impact was instantaneous. Within hours the blanket, by New York-based Aden + Anais, had been ordered over 10,000 times, its website had crashed, and, once fixed, its visits spiked by nearly 2,000 percent. This was the first iteration of what has been dubbed the “Prince George Effect”, and since then, his continuous ability to deplete the shops of stock has become a national phenomenon.

On his first birthday, the Prince toured the Natural History Museum wearing a simple pair of striped denim dungarees by Petit Bateau. They sold out even before the official picture was released. His first Christmas portrait was met with the same response. Sitting on the steps of Kensington Palace in a sleeveless, already-sold-out Cath Kidston tank top patterned with marching royal guards, shoppers spiralled into a festive frenzy, and the store rushed to re-add the knit to its range. Accompanying his parents on their tour of New Zealand in 2014, the Prince modelled a pair of Rachel Riley dungarees, cheerfully adorned with sailing boats. Within moments of the picture appearing online, they sold out in two sizes. The brand was suddenly swamped with international orders, a trend that has continued to the present day—particularly in countries like the US, where interest in the Royal Family runs high. “[Prince George] has certainly led to increased global demand for our collections”, Riley tells Vogue.

After his tour of New Zealand, the young prince arrived in neighbouring Australia dressed in a Les Petites Abeilles romper suit that riffed on the nautical theme again. Besotted customers were added to a two-month waiting list. Later that year, he sported a pale-blue sweater with his name emblazoned across the chest. It promptly became a bestseller, racking up 1,200 orders on My1stYears.com in subsequent days. Marcus Tagesson, chief executive of the premium retail site The Luxury Kids Group, says the impact the Prince can have on sales is immediate and tangible: “As with the so-called ‘Kate effect’, anything Prince George wears, we will see demand for those items increase quite considerably”.

Although Prince George’s sell-out skills remain largely unrivalled—except by his sister, Princess Charlotte—he isn’t the only high-profile child currently causing a stir in the fashion industry. Harper Beckham, the six-year-old daughter of David and Victoria Beckham, is particularly well put-together, with a rotating wardrobe of Burberry, Chloé and Stella McCartney. Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West’s four-year-old daughter, North, has been known to carry a mini Louis Vuitton tote, and, in 2016, mother and daughter attended West’s Madison Square Garden concert in matching silver sequinned Vetements dresses. Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s five-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy, also seems to have developed a penchant for designer dressing, accompanying her mother to the 2016 Video Music Awards in New York in a Mischka Aoki dress replete with a four-foot tulle train, Giuseppe Zanotti shoes and a tiara.

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Blue Ivy Carter and Beyoncé

Image: Getty

Blue Ivy Carter and Beyoncé

Image: Getty

Blue Ivy Carter and Jay Z

Image: Getty

Harper and David Beckham

Image: Getty

Harper Beckham

Image: Getty

Harper Beckham

Image: Getty

North West and Kendall Jenner

Image: Getty

North West

Image: Getty

North West

Image: Getty

As the sartorial choices of these celebrity children are shared, scrutinised and copied, the childrenswear industry is booming. Back in 1967, Dior led the charge, opening Baby Dior, but it was not until the turn of the millennium that they were joined by a raft of other luxury designers, who spotted the lucrative possibilities of cultivating brand loyalty early. Stella McCartney launched her kids line in 2010, and was followed by the likes of Lanvin, Gucci, Marni and Dolce & Gabbana, who shrunk their sumptuous prints down to pint-size. Over the past five years, growth in the childrenswear market has outstripped both womenswear and menswear, according to Euromonitor research. In the UK, the childrenswear market is set to rise a further 13.2 percent in the next five years, to £6.1 billion.

Despite competition from his contemporaries, it was a barely-talking Prince George who was crowned “the world’s most influential toddler” by Forbes magazine in 2014, has a clutch of blogs dedicated to his dressing, and according to a study conducted by Brand Finance, is worth roughly £2.3 billion to the British economy. What is it about the Prince George’s style that has captured the imagination of parents around the world? His penchant for Peter Pan collars and Start-rite shoes, supplemented by the occasional knee-high sock for a touch of impish, Just William-style charm, don’t instinctively chime with the Instagram generation; his stripy cotton T-shirts could be considered no match for Blue Ivy’s trails of tulle.

The appeal of Prince George’s style is that it firmly twists poeticism with pragmatism. It is sweet, but not staid, traditional but not out-of-touch. Its power, just like his mother’s, is that it errs reassuringly on the side of normalcy. As Taggeson says, “William and Kate seem to dress George in really great-quality, functional pieces. Many of the brands they favour are at the mid-price point too, meaning attaining their style is much more accessible to parents”. Take the coat he wore on his first day at Westacre Montessori school in Norfolk. Navy blue and quilted, with corduroy elbow patches and a tartan-lined hood, it was £30, and from John Lewis. After pictures emerged, the store reportedly experienced a 447 percent surge in enquiries for similar items.

Sarah Coonan, head of buying for beauty, home and children’s at luxury department store Liberty London, notes that Prince George’s championing of simple, quintessentially childlike styles has sparked a wider movement across the entire industry, bolstering independent, established brands and the high street rather than high fashion. “I think there is a shifting aesthetic towards something more traditional”, she says. “Prince George has definitely been a factor in this changing aesthetic, particularly in the growth we’ve seen in terms of classic brands”.

“In fact”, she adds, “we frequently have customers ask us if we stock anything he has worn”.